A solid-state image pickup apparatus comprises a photodetecting section in which a plurality of pixels each including a photodiode are arranged in M rows and N columns, a row selecting section that outputs a row selecting signal to select each row of the photodetecting section, and a column selecting section that outputs a column selecting signal to select each column of the photodetecting section. And, by the row selecting section and the column selecting section, electric charges generated in the photodiodes of the respective pixels are read out in order. In such a solid-state image pickup apparatus, generally, the photodetecting section is arranged in a rectangular region, the column detecting section is arranged at the side of a first side of the rectangle (first-row side or Mth-row side of the photodetecting section), and the row selecting section is arranged at the side of a second side (side that is vertical to the first side) of the rectangle.
Meanwhile, in a solid-state image pickup apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, a column selecting section is arranged at the first side of a rectangle in which a photodetecting section is arranged, and a row selecting section is arranged at the first side or a third side (opposite side parallel to the first side) of the rectangle. With such an arrangement of the column selecting section and the row selecting section as this, it becomes possible to reduce the solid-state image pickup apparatus in size when the solid-state image pickup apparatus is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a non-sensitive region (region where a light incidence cannot be detected) between the photodetecting sections can be reduced when a plurality of solid-state image pickup apparatuses are juxtaposed.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H03-27684